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Make a High Volume Manual Vacuum Pump

Introduction: Make a High Volume Manual Vacuum Pump

This video will show how to make a vacuum pump, a device that can be used to suck the air out of sealed environments. This is the same pump I use to operate my vacuum cannon seen here: http://youtu.be/CVL99yIB3NQ

A clear vacuum chamber such as the one seen in the video can be obtained by purchasing a bell jar and vacuum plate, easily available online. I highly advise that only vessels made for handling vacuum pressure such as bell jars be used with this or any vacuum pump. If a vessel were to fail while under vacuum the implosion can be powerful enough to cause injury.

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Okay, so I'm absolutely confused as to what's going on with your vacuum gauge you've got there. From what I've managed to gather, higher values are actually a higher pressure when speaking about this, unless it's indicating vacuum relative to atmospheric pressure. Which I suppose might make sense... but the fact that it goes to 30 makes me question whether or not this is possible... Ugghhh, I don't know...

The gauge measures vacuum relative to external pressure (in this case atmospheric pressure) which is the only way to do it. The standard measurement is in inches of mercury, which basically means if there were a vertical straw in a bowl of mercury and the vacuum on the other end, the vacuum would be determined by how high into the straw the mercury is forced to go by external pressure. 30 inches is the furthest possible travel at atmospheric pressure and equates to roughly a perfect vacuum, though you will never quite get there. Yes, you will be able boil water at room temp, but as the water boils the vapor very quickly raises the pressure inside your vacuum chamber so you will need to keep pumping during the whole process to remove the vapor and restore the vacuum. A manual pump is not ideal for this reason.

I'm curious about whether having the second valve on the curved side of the pipe made much of a difference for you in terms of effectiveness. Would it be easier to move the valve in the end cap over a bit to make room for the other valve there as well, instead of on the side?

Some students in my physics class will be making their own vacuum pump and cannon; we'll be sure to share our results once they've finished. Thanks for the instructable!